Wow, it's hard to see how they can go even one more season, let alone two. Deb already busted him, so that plot point is done. For the last couple seasons he's been going through the motions in the serial killing thing. Maybe if Yvonne LastnameIhavenoideahowtospell gets naked it would help I guess.

Evil Mackerel:It would be fun to see a side story of the CIA putting "bad people" in Dexter's path for him to "take care of".

"I was on a bus and it was the middle of the night. And I had a box of crackers and a can of Easy Cheese. But it was the middle of the night, so I could not see. I could not see how much Easy Cheese I was applying to each cracker. So each bite into the cracker was a surprise as to how much Easy Cheese I had applied. Which makes me believe they should have a glow in the dark version of Easy Cheese. It's not like the product has any integrity to begin with. If you buy a room temperature cheese that you squeeze out of a can, you probably won't get mad if it glows in the dark too." - Mitch Hedberg

Sadly, I think Dexter is in a worse situation than they would be if they had jumped the shark - they're in a steady decline with no clear, teachable moment to point to where it began. I only hope they have the decency to end it before it becomes unwatchable rubbish. But if it's making them money, they'll provbably keep making it long after it becomes utter garbage - just look at Weeds

Please just let it die. Season seven was painful to get through. It had moments of greatness, but even the occasional speck of light couldn't counter the mass of dreary blah that made up the season, and it is obvious that the writers are struggling to keep moving the story forward. The large number of flashbacks fillers in the last few episodes were a clear testament of this. Time to end it all.

Season 9 arc: Ray Romano plays an FBI profiler investigating the serial killer phenomenon in Miami. It's the perfect disguise for a serial killer who knows what to do to not get caught. Dexter can't match wits with him, and Debra falls for him. SPOILER: right before Ray kills Dexter with his sister watching, he says "I'M SAHRY DEBRA"

Dexter is getting hard to watch after Breaking Bad. On BB, the writers and producers pay so much attention to detail it's ridiculous wherein only the biggest nerds cant suspend their disbelief. Dexter's writers have gotten really lazy and Dexter isnt as careful and methodical with his kills and it becomes hard to believe that no one is onto the evidence tampering or Dexter's omission of data in his reports. Are there really no set work hours? It seems like Dexter can just come and go to work as he pleases. That grinds me the most. That along with the fact that they had to write the nanny in to free up Dexter. He never spends anytime with Harrison, yet Harrison asks about Hannah. Good season, not great like season 4.

Dexter is amazing, in that it has the absolute WORST "B" storylines of any major series, and still picks up viewers. Once Dexter himself leaves the frame, what comes next is almost certainly forgettable and irrelevant.

I love me some Dexter as much as the next person: But for the love of GOD it can't continue past the 8th season - it shouldn't have gotten two more, but I digress.

It's just stretched into so much farce - Dexter having conversations about his activities visiting inmates in jail - the numerous times he's made calls from his cell phone without regard to who he's calling, etc. The acting is great, and I have MAD love for MCH - but the story telling is getting so sloppy it's just not fun to watch any more.

Season 8: Dexter gets executed.Season 9: Dexter returns from the grave as an undead vigilante who wears a hockey mask and can't be killed. Season 10: Dexter's immortality put to the test as his head is removed from his body which is blended into a soup and poured into Bay Harbor. Closing scene of the finale is just a slow fade out of his pickled decapitated head in a jar on a table with a large butcher knife sitting in front of it. Screen goes black...then flashes back to the jar to show Dexter's eyes open.Season 11: Dexter's re-animated head is sewn onto a cyborg body and he is shot into space to do battle with a new technical monstrosity created by the US government: TRINITYBOT.

I'd like for Quinn to get his own spin-off show where he does every thing that a cop is definitely not supposed to do, somehow never getting in trouble but also never solving any cases or catching anyone, banging all the female suspects and witnesses and either accidentally or intentionally killing the male ones, constantly misplacing his gun and/or badge, or both, falling asleep during interrogations, in a drunken daze the entire time. And every episode his well meaning partner can say something like "you gotta straighten out man, I can only cover for you so long" but nothing ever happens. Maybe he could somehow cause the death of his partner at the end of every season and just keep getting new ones. It could be called "Worst Detective" and it would have a laugh track.

I still enjoy Dexter a lot. Season 6 was a low point but I thought Season 7 was better. That being said, they need to end it before they ruin it.

MCH has been eager to move on to other projects and there were apparently some intense negotiations required to get him to commit to Season 7 and 8, with one of the stipulations being that 8 would be the last season for sure. This article does nothing to suggest that Season 8 will not be last either, only pointing out that Season 7 had the highest ratings yet. There's no new developments to speak of, just a lazy writer speculating about a topic that has been debated for years (should a popular show go out on top or stick around until nobody cares anymore?)

flux:I'd like for Quinn to get his own spin-off show where he does every thing that a cop is definitely not supposed to do, somehow never getting in trouble but also never solving any cases or catching anyone, banging all the female suspects and witnesses and either accidentally or intentionally killing the male ones, constantly misplacing his gun and/or badge, or both, falling asleep during interrogations, in a drunken daze the entire time. And every episode his well meaning partner can say something like "you gotta straighten out man, I can only cover for you so long" but nothing ever happens. Maybe he could somehow cause the death of his partner at the end of every season and just keep getting new ones. It could be called "Worst Detective" and it would have a laugh track.

This season was definitely better than the last two, but dear lord does it need to end. There just isn't a reasonable explanation- even within the show's own rules- for why Dexter hasn't been put in jail at least once. It's textbook lazy writing. It's sort of like HIMYM for me in that I've invested too much time to stop watching altogether, but it's a shadow of what it used to be*.

*With the exception of Ray and Yvonne from this year- great actors and great characters that the writers ultimately stumbled with.

flux:I'd like for Quinn to get his own spin-off show where he does every thing that a cop is definitely not supposed to do, somehow never getting in trouble but also never solving any cases or catching anyone, banging all the female suspects and witnesses and either accidentally or intentionally killing the male ones, constantly misplacing his gun and/or badge, or both, falling asleep during interrogations, in a drunken daze the entire time. And every episode his well meaning partner can say something like "you gotta straighten out man, I can only cover for you so long" but nothing ever happens. Maybe he could somehow cause the death of his partner at the end of every season and just keep getting new ones. It could be called "Worst Detective" and it would have a laugh track.

I'm there as long as it still has Masuka delivering inappropriate dialogue and giggling like a maniac.

in season 7, Dexter explained through internal monologue that he used to have to fake human emotions, but they have been made real by the experience of fatherhood, i.e. seeing his son once a day on his way to or from the beach or pool with his lithe and presumably flexible nanny, who is always taking Harrison to either the beach or pool because this allows her to spend the majority of her on-screen time in a bikini.

In season 8, Harrison will be played by one of those yellow plastic child-shaped cutouts that go in school crosswalks.

I do wish Dexter and Quinn wouldn't wear the same shirts. They have the same build and same basic haircut, but when they're playing "can I borrow the pink shirt", things get kind of quirky from afar. You expect it to be Dexter but, ugh, Quinn or vice versa. And that blue striped one.

Dexter was great when he was hunting, killing, or masking because he remained a psychopath who was the protagonist only as long as he killed villains, because his intention was not to be a vigilante but sate a lust without being hunted himself. Gradually, he has garnered a life and therefore reasons which have spiraled out of control but are still grounded in something intelligible to the rest of us which is not losing his family. The kills this season are not motivated by anything somewhat grotesque but rather revenge, family, love, self-defense, and self-preservation. Dexter no longer has to make himself appear to be concerned about the welfare of others because he actually is. As well, the code has gone from choosing targets to avoid investigation to a concern over innocence for the sake of innocence.

Season eight needs to be something of a reboot, following the same story arc from season seven but cutting the fatherly, brotherly, vigilante Dexter out. Season seven was dramatically better than the last two, however, so still looking forward to the next, which is why the next will probably have lower quality, anyway.

The problem with Dexter is it has nudity, but it is always background nudity, some low class stripper with implants dancing in the background as scenery. What it really needs is some Game of Thrones style on camera semi main cast nudity, then it would be baller.

There need to be less sub plots next season. The past couple seasons have had Dexter get involved in so many sub plots for killing people that the story basically become how he deals with life with all these sub plots. It was ok for one season, but now every season is hectic and you would think Dexter would learn to tone things down.

If they go back early season format where there is one very definite killer or story, it should do fine. Obviously, they will have to resolve what happens in the long term for Dexter since this is the final season and no one likes open ended endings. He'll either die, kill Deb and run away with that random chick from last season, sent to jail, or hook up with Deb and live happily ever after.

I'd like to go into Season 8 knowing things will wrap up, but after some big series finale disappointments in the past (Lost, X-Files, Sopranos) I'm wary of what will happen. Will the writers decide to let Dexter live happily ever after? Will Deb and Dexter both go down? Was Season 7 all a dream? My money is on Lumen coming back to take care of the Hannah issue, Deb and Quinn hooking up, and the four of them (Dex/Lumen/Deb/Quinn) ending up in Argentina raising Harrison.

Vash The Stampede: I still enjoy Dexter a lot. Season 6 was a low point but I thought Season 7 was better. That being said, they need to end it before they ruin it.

MCH has been eager to move on to other projects and there were apparently some intense negotiations required to get him to commit to Season 7 and 8, with one of the stipulations being that 8 would be the last season for sure. This article does nothing to suggest that Season 8 will not be last either, only pointing out that Season 7 had the highest ratings yet. There's no new developments to speak of, just a lazy writer speculating about a topic that has been debated for years (should a popular show go out on top or stick around until nobody cares anymore?)

Season 8 should be the last. It should deal with the fallout of Deb becoming a murderer and the void that Laguerta's death leaves at Miami Metro. It should also further deal with Dexter's realization that he's become "human", i.e. loving his son, caring more about the victims of the murderers he kills, his life being "real" to him now, falling in love, etc. and the impact that all of this is having on his killing impulse.

Also Michael C Hall wants and should move on. He's been in two long-running series back-to-back: Six Feet Under (4 years) and Dexter (soon to be 8 years). That's twelve years. He was thirty years old when he started Six Feet Under and he'll be forty-two when the 8th season of Dexter ends. Time to move on.

Here is how it should end. Dexter holding Harrison goes into a liquor store to buy some wine. A robber comes in and holds up the liquor store and locks the front door. Something goes wrong and the clerk and Dexter get killed and the robber flees out the back. Harrison sits crying in a pool of his fathers blood for hours until someone notices blood seeping from the front door of the locked liquor store and calls the cops. Cops come in and see Harrison pick him up and call Debra Morigan to the scene. Dexter's death is in all the papers and they all say the how he was a pilar of the community, a good guy, good father. Debra raises Harrison and it ends with a flash forward twenty years to Harrison graduating from the police academy with Debra in the audience watching him graduate.

Deb calling about La Guerta's location the night she was murdered is going to come around and bite her in the ass next season. And ratings trumps all. Besides, the only way they wouldn't be able to keep the story going is if the writers were hacks that couldn't think beyond the original premise of the series.

For me there were two key moments that ruined the show for me. The first was killing of Doakes, especially the way he was killed. He was the show's most interesting character and the only one with a real eye on dexter. He was effectively the antagonist without ever really being able to fully explore that. His death alone wasn't so bad, it was the introduction of Quinn after in exactly the same role as Doakes.

The good, tough ass cop who was immediately suspicious of Dexter. Of course his role changed over the next few seasons to move away from that, but it helped to bring my attention to the second key moment: The moment I realized that each season was following the same pattern as the one before. This happened at about the first episode of season 4. Everyone loved this season. I hated it. I hated it because it was the same season we'd already watched 3 times before. The first season was great, and the second one was pretty good as well (Doakes' death notwithstanding). The third wasn't as good but at this point we're invested in the characters, and the role played by Jimmy Smits was great, and intense enough to grab me. But by season four I recognized the pattern, and all drama, tension and interest in the show immediately drained from me. Here's the pattern:

1) Dexter is sad because he has a dark passenger that he doesn't understand and no one understands him because of it2) Each season introduces a new 'big bad'3) Dexter gets, or tries to get close to the big bad to learn from them how they deal with their own 'dark passenger'4) Dexter finds he can't and kills them at the end of the last episode of the season.5) (optional) there may be some collateral damage on the way.

For me this removed the tension. In season four, I was never worried that the Trinity killer would harm Dexter, or that Dexter would kill Trinity. Because it wasn't the last episode yet!

By having a big bad in each season, we know how each season is going to play out. This made me see the fourth season as predictable. I even predicted Rita would die at the end (although I had thought that maybe Dexter would kill her himself). Deb should have discovered he was a killer at the end of season four, and then seasons 5 and 6 should have been the last two, with an overaching storyline. The one-season, one-badguy pattern really needs to go.

DemoKnite:On BB, the writers and producers pay so much attention to detail it's ridiculous wherein only the biggest nerds cant suspend their disbelief

True Story: I found Breaking Bad so ridiculously tiresome because I cannot suspend my disbelief that there are human beings who might act like anyone on that show acts. Most of the characters are paper-thin caricatures that exist to make Malcolm's dad look good. I do not understand why or how anyone could like it.

Also, Dexter was actually good until maybe the end of season 2 and acceptable but somewhat ridiculous until the end of whatever season had John Lithgow.

I personally hope in the middle of this next (final) season, Dexter comes forth with the truth about everything, and the rest of the season shows the utter shock and disbelief of the department and those who were close to Dexter. I think it would be freaking epic.

likefunbutnot:DemoKnite: On BB, the writers and producers pay so much attention to detail it's ridiculous wherein only the biggest nerds cant suspend their disbelief

True Story: I found Breaking Bad so ridiculously tiresome because I cannot suspend my disbelief that there are human beings who might act like anyone on that show acts. Most of the characters are paper-thin caricatures that exist to make Malcolm's dad look good. I do not understand why or how anyone could like it.

Also, Dexter was actually good until maybe the end of season 2 and acceptable but somewhat ridiculous until the end of whatever season had John Lithgow.

Meh. To each his own.What are you going to watch now that Jersey Shore is done? Reruns of AI and DWTS?Maybe this season of Real Housewives of wherever will keep you from hari kari.

cefm:All Dex apologists just need to go back and watch Season 1 again and wonder "what the hell happened to this show?"

The producers quit following Jeff Lindsay's books and went out on their own path after the first season. Season 2 had similarities to book 2, Dearly Devoted Dexter, but since then the stories don't track at all. For instance, Laguerta was killed off early on and Doakes is still alive. Also, Quinn doesn't exist in the books and Deb has known about Dexter's hobby for quite some time.

Dissociater:1) Dexter is sad because he has a dark passenger that he doesn't understand and no one understands him because of it2) Each season introduces a new 'big bad'3) Dexter gets, or tries to get close to the big bad to learn from them how they deal with their own 'dark passenger'4) Dexter finds he can't and kills them at the end of the last episode of the season.5) (optional) there may be some collateral damage on the way.

I hear ya, but this season did actually break that mold and throw some twists our way.

*spoilers*

I personally expected Louis to be the "big bad" in kind of the same vein as the Ice Truck Killer (cat-and-mouse)... but Issak disposed of him. Then we thought Isaak would be the big bad... until he starts working with Dexter as quasi-equals. So then, it's gotta be Isaak's killer, right? Nope, Quinn takes care of him. The Phantom Arsonist? Not developed as a character and quickly done away with. That leaves Hannah... who survives. And you can't really consider LaGuerta the big bad, even if she was the final kill.

The certainly changed it up, which was probably necessary after Deb discovered his secret.

/oh, and his Dark Passenger is dead too, which could almost be the metaphorical "big bad" kill... now Dexter doesn't even need to follow The Code.